A Proud Voting Record

Our Towns

Bolton

June 26, 2002

Townspeople in Bolton took a long time to support a budget for the 2002-03 fiscal year. The town held four referendums before a budget was passed last Thursday. But, unlike many communities, Bolton can be proud of the number of residents who showed up to vote.

While municipalities such as Vernon and Somers struggled to get people to the polls and raise turnout over 15 percent, Bolton tripled those numbers. It did so for each of the four referendums. That's a strong record.

The lowest percentage of registered voters who cast ballots occurred during Thursday's referendum. But that was still an impressive 44.4 percent. And because the budget was getting more attention, more people had registered to vote. So more voted -- 1,407 -- than in the first referendum when 44.9 percent of registered voters -- 1,395 -- came to the polls.

The second and third referendums were even more notable. On May 30, 49.15 percent of registered voters showed up. On June 13, 47.5 percent voted.

Residents' participation took on greater importance in the last two referendums. The margin of defeat for the third vote was 90. On the fourth try, it passed by 41 votes.

Bolton voters could easily have become worn out and lost interest in the budget with each referendum. But they didn't.

An added legacy of this budget awareness is the increase in registered voters -- up by 47 in the month between the first and fourth vote. Those people are likely to show up for other elections because they're already on the rolls.

The budget voters finally approved will increase taxes 4.5 percent - no small hit for taxpayers in these economic doldrums. But regardless of the size of the increase, townspeople should care enough about their municipality's spending plan to help influence it.

Good job, Bolton. Now, next time, work to get out the other 50 percent.